North Melbourne coach David Noble loved rookie Jason Horne-Francis’ clash with Carlton’s Jack Silvagni

In his seventh game. No.1 draft pick Jason Horne-Francis tried to take on Carlton on his own and his coach loved it.

David Noble loves what he sees in Jason Horne-Francis. Picture: Michael Klein

The passion and fire rising star Jason Horne-Francis showed in his clash with Carlton’s Jack Silvagni on Saturday was one of the reasons North Melbourne coach David Noble wanted him at the club.

In just his seventh game, the 18-year-old, taken as the No.1 pick in last year’s AFL draft, went toe-to-toe with Silvagni, playing his 84th match, at Marvel Stadium.

Horne-Francis was finally rewarded with a Rising Star nomination this week after seven solid outings for the Kangaroos that have yielded just one win.

But having dismissed an altercation with Silvagni as an act of frustration, Kangaroos coach David Noble said Horne-Francis wanted to stand up for himself and his team.

He said the rookie’s aggression was one of the reasons the Kangaroos locked him in as the top draft pick.

“That’s what attracted to us about Jason as the No.1 pick,” Noble said.

“We saw a fair bit of that when he was playing at South (Adelaide). There were a few teams that tried to rough him up over there.

Jason Horne-Francis is prepared to stand his ground. Picture: Michael Klein

“We liked the fact he was prepared to stand his ground, but what I loved about it was the next contest he went after the ball and put his mitts on the ball again.

“That’s what you want as a coach, fly the flag but don’t give up possession of the ball.”

Video of the incident showed clearly that Silvagni was disparaging the Kangaroos, and while Horne-Francis said he didn’t “take it to heart”, it deserved a reaction on behalf of his teammates.

“(Silvagni) just said that we weren‘t very good and I wasn’t very good, but it was a lot of heat of the moment and didn’t take anything to heart,” Horne-Francis said on Tuesday.

“It’s just in my nature, sticking up for my teammates. It’s something I love doing and I think a lot of it was just heat of the moment, but that’s something that comes naturally.

“For me that’s just how I want to be playing week in, week out.”

Rising Star nominee Jason Horne-Francis is moments away from speaking to reporters at Arden Street 💫

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North first-gamer Miller Bergman could be headed for surgery after being subbed out of the loss to Carlton with a shoulder injury sustained as he gathered his first AFL possession.

“We’ll get a surgeon to have a look at Miller’s shoulder in the coming days to see if any intervention needs to occur from that perspective, but we won’t know a lot until that happens later in the week,” North general manager of football performance Dan McPherson said.

But scans cleared Tarryn Thomas of a hamstring issue following Saturday’s game.

Originally published as North Melbourne coach David Noble loved rookie Jason Horne-Francis’ clash with Carlton’s Jack Silvagni